External Action Service proposes €123 bln budget

“We now propose a new instrument that will cover pretty much the whole world – it is called the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). It will be comprehensive in geographic and thematic terms. A few exceptions are, obviously, the candidate and potential candidate countries for membership to the European Union and the overseas countries and territories, but also humanitarian aid and, for legal reasons, nuclear safety” – the EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini said, while presenting the new initiative.

Proposed #EU external action’s budget to €123 bln in 7 yrs, +30 pc. @FedericaMog Our citizens and the world demand a strong EU: we increase investments to fulfill this global role. It’s also a recognition of the work done. No country alone could manage: you need critical mass pic.twitter.com/gK8Qg6g5Sd

“I will leave to the Commissioners to go more in detail on their respective fields of responsibility, but I would like to stress the fact that the single instrument approach will give us more coherence and more focus on policies” – Mogherini continued.

#EUDefence@FedericaMog proposes €10.5 bln extra budget European Peace Facility to cover common costs of EU missions&operations, contribute to international peace operations, support partners’ armed forces. Our citizens expect us to be a security provider in our region & beyond pic.twitter.com/4ig31xpVNk

“It does not mean having less targeted policies towards certain regions or certain countries. On the contrary, we are proposing to increase the allocation of resources where our political priorities are and in particular our Neighbourhood, our region, Africa, the Western Balkans, climate change, migration, humanitarian aid and human rights and democracy. So the clear political priorities are defined and the allocation of money is reflecting these political priorities”.